QUICK ACTION: Please send an email by no later than 9:00 am on Wed, Feb 14th to recep@sib.wa.gov. Tell the Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) you don’t want state pension funds invested in fossil fuels! Just a sentence is fine, or write more if you have time. Even if you aren’t a public employee, your voice matters. Oral testimony is even more powerful.
Some possible themes for your comments:
- Why getting our state pension out of fossil fuels NOW is important to you personally
- Fossil fuel investments by our sizable pension fund (6th largest in the U.S.) are putting everyone–and the world economy–at risk as they keep pumping CO2 into the atmosphere
- Fossil fuel investments have lagged for over a decade and risk becoming worthless–jeopardizing hard earned retirement funds
- The recent Sierra Club report The Hidden Risk in State Pensions: Analyzing State Pensions’ Responses to the Climate Crisis in Proxy Voting compares shareholder proxy voting in 19 state pensions with WA earning a miserable “F” for guidance on climate voting and “D+” for actual voting
- Be transparent about the widespread climate-related financial risks in the WSIB portfolio, including systemic risks to the entire economy
- Fossil fuel investments are unjust! WSIB’s recent $400M Private Equity investment in the Rio Grande LNG terminal unfairly harms communities of color.
- At a minimum, divest from the 200 largest publicly traded fossil fuel companies, as established by carbon content, in the companies’ proven oil, gas and coal reserves.
- Remove fossil fuels from state investments in a transparent manner that protects the health of our pension fund.
THANK YOU for your written comments last month! The Board received 23 written comments urging them to divest from fossil fuels!
The Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) meets Thursday Feb 15, at 9:30 am in Olympia. To attend in person or remotely by Microsoft Teams, follow the instructions here: https://www.sib.wa.gov/meetings.html.
Sign up to comment at least 24 hours in advance. Oral comments are usually limited to 2 or 3 minutes–in person or on Zoom. Be respectful of time, and remember the members of the Board are potential allies.
See the attached one-pager for more on Divest WA and the problem with the WSIB fossil fuel investments.
Thank You!
Divest Washington
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